I am Italian, he is Mozambican, we do not know each other, we met once  months ago but I don’t know anything about him.

And we have to work together, without losing much time. How can I create a feeling right away?

” Felix is here” and I go up to him and hug him, just like that, saying nothing, just a hug.

He laughs, we all laugh.

Felix is here to support me in the work: it will be easier to communicate with the actors with his help, his “theatrical” eyes will help me understand the events and themes dealt with. He surely knows the Mozambican theater better than me, we will make the most of our experience in order to work together.

I explain the plan of the mission to him, while doing it I keep my  hand on his shoulder all the time. It’s a technique I’ve learnt at Alcatraz: do you want to empathize with people? Touch them, heat  and energy will flow,  confidence and communication skills will develop (blessed Demential Yoga by Jacopo Fo!).

It works with Felix, too.

We work out what to watch during the shows and what to do immediately after the encounter with the actors. Mime games, movement games, stage presence games. We need to bring out the talents, make them blossom, I tell Felix.

I talk to him in Italian, I speak slowly (not loudly, he is Mozambican, not deaf), he understands, Felix speaks Portuguese, a bit of English, he has already worked with Italians, he collaborates with Timi, and he understands  Italian a bit. When he wants to be sure he asks for the translation into Portuguese, but we manage to communicate well.

A couple of beers do the rest, we have become great friends!

He has a young daughter, a girlfriend and he is the coordinator, person in charge, actor, director, writer of the Luarte group. As he is speaking about the work he is carrying out I see happiness in his eyes!

He comes from a difficult district of Maputo but he has been able to invent a career for himself that is also a great passion.

I tell him a few things about me, about Alcatraz, my work with Jacopo Fo. I get  to tell him about a part of a theatrical performance by Jacopo, “Zen and the Art of Fucking”!